ASSIZE: Gothic Sudoku Duel

You were a clerk when they hanged your master for forging the Great Ledger. This morning, an ink-echo wearing his voice stood at your door and told you to win the truth back, folio by folio. Welcome to the Assize — a 1v1 sudoku duel in the plague-walled city of Novem, where law is settled by solving. THE DUEL Two pleaders. One sealed Tablet of nine by nine. Both solve the same puzzle, at the same table, at the same time. Place correct digits and build Momentum. Complete a row, a column, or a box to claim it — and wound your foe's wax Seals. Place false ink, and your own Seals crack. Cast engraved Rites to hinder one another: Chains that lock cells, Smudges that blur digits, Hushes that still your hand, Miasmas that erase your notes, Quarantines that seal whole units from claim. The first pleader to break the other's Seals — or fill the Tablet — prevails. FOUR ORDERS Choose your Order…